The Eleventh Day of Pumpkin …with The Smashing Pumpkins

PublishedOctober 21, 2011

I was never a huge fan, but how could I write a Twelve Days of Pumpkin series without mentioning the alternative rock band, The Smashing Pumpkins? The band was formed in the late ‘80’s with frontmen Bill Corgan and James Iha. Jim Chamberlin, D’arcy Wretsky, Jeff Schroeder, Mike Bryne and Nicole Fiorentino have also been or are still band members.

The band achieved most of their mainstream success during the years I was getting married and paying down student debt, so not a lot of free cash to throw around at rock concerts. In 1995, I was pregnant with my first child and The Smashing Pumpkins had sold almost 18 million of theirs! By the new millennium, when my third child was born, The Smashing Pumpkins announced their break up. As their front man, Bill Corgan, once announced to his fans, “Welcome to Pumpkinland; this is what it will sound like on Planet Pumpkin”, I was probably singing something similar though by Raffi or The Wiggles.

I rediscovered a couple of my all-time favourites while writing this post: Disarm and 1979. As is the case with so many bands, their demise was born from their success. Too much internal fighting and drug use eventually led to their break-up. However, what’s left of the original band is playing tonight in Boston as part of their 12-city reunion tour showcasing their album Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. You gotta admire a band that will release one track at a time for free over the Internet. Clearly, financial success is no longer the band’s modus operandi. Time will tell if they’ll reclaim the fame or the fans they once enjoyed, but for now I fondly reminisce with my favourite song, Disarm (can’t seem to embed from YouTube, sorry).

Related

2 Responses to The Eleventh Day of Pumpkin …with The Smashing Pumpkins

I was a big Smashing Pumpkins fan back in the day. I was sans husband and kids, so I had more time on my hands to follow bands around, though it’s worth noting that time does not equal money, so there was always a hang up in that department. Releasing one free track at a time on the Internet? In this economy? Crazy.